Orange and passionfruit yoyos

For years I shied away from baking.  Hiding behind the claim that because I had a ‘savoury tooth’ not a ‘sweet tooth’ it just wasn’t my thing.  I have recently re-evaluated that idea and have enjoyed my forays into the world of precise measurements and careful timing.  These delicious biscuits I made for a local café at the owner’s request. I had never done them before, but was thrilled with the result.

Ingredients for the biscuits

250g soft unsalted butter

80g sifted icing sugar

finely grated rind of an orange

1 tsp vanilla extract

75g cornflour

225g plain flour

extra icing sugar for dusting

Ingredients for the filling

275g sifted icing sugar

100g finely chopped cold unsalted butter

the pulp of 2 passionfruit

Method

Beat the butter and sugar until its light and fluffy.  I remember doing this by hand for Mum years ago.  I think it was her way to keep me occupied and out of trouble.  These days I prefer an electric mixer.  To this add the orange rind and vanilla extract and beat until it is just combined.  Sift in the plain flour and cornflour and stir with a wooden spoon until a soft dough forms.

Take a level 1/2 tablespoons of mixture and roll it into balls. It helps if you flour your hands to do this so that the dough doesn’t stick.  Place the balls about 5cm apart on a tray lined with baking paper and press down to gently flatten them – not too much though, you are aiming for discs of around 3 1/2cm.  Using a fork (good idea to flour it too) press the middle of each disc to create grooves.  Pop them in the oven at 180C for 12 minutes or until you can just see some colour appearing.  Remove and let them cool on a wire rack.

The filling is even more simple.  Beat the icing sugar and butter until light and fluffy, but don’t worry if it doesn’t look like it is combining the way you think it should.  Add the passionfruit pulp and mix further and you will see it turn beautiful and fluffy.

Sandwich two biscuits together with about a tablespoon of the passionfruit filling and voilá you have your yoyos.  Dust all of the yoyos with the extra icing sugar.  This will make approximately 24.